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Criminalization of drugs

Sun., Nov. 12, 2017

Mike Stobbe of the Associated Press (“Opioid epidemic shares similarities with the past,” Oct. 29) omits some unintended but highly adverse consequences of the criminalization of addictive drugs early in the last century.

Prices rocketed; supply, now illegal and therefore highly profitable, was taken over by highly competitive criminals whose interest it was to widen demand, leading to violent and widening criminal activity, threats to public order, a marked rise in addiction and severe and intractable social problems.

These consequences of the criminalization of addictive drugs should be but are too infrequently taken into account in popular discussions of the drugs’ problem.

Jim Haas

Pullman

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